Kuban farmer Petrov goes on hunger strike

Today, Oleg Petrov, a farmer activist, accused of a fraud, was taken into custody upon the judgement of the Kavkaz District Court of the KrasnodarTerritory. His advocate said that Oleg went on a hunger strike in protest against his criminal prosecution.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 28, the field land plot of Oleg Petrov in the village of Kazanskaya was to become the starting point of the "tractor march" to Moscow, by which the Kuban farmers wanted to draw attention to the raiding problems in the territory. The police disrupted the action, searched Petrov's house and detained him on suspicion of a large-scale fraud.

According to investigators, Petrov had forged the documents on the existence of some debt to him from the peasant farm, which was at the bankruptcy stage. Petrov refuses to plead guilty.

Tonight, the above Kavkaz District Court has ruled to place Oleg Petrov into custody for two months, the advocate Vladimir Shamshurov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"We disagree with the presented charge, it's obviously trumped up," said Shamshurov.

The defence intends to appeal against the judgement within three days.

In protest, Petrov went on a hunger strike at the temporary detention facility (known as the IVS) of the town of Kropotkin, Mr Shamshurov has added.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.